‘We have to stand together’: Minnesota economic blackout organizers push to take demonstrations nationwide
One of the largest labor unions in the US is pushing to expand Friday’s economic blackout over the surge of federal immigration agents in Minnesota.Organizers are urging Minnesotans not to work, shop or go to school tomorrow, as part of demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the region, and the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good.They are now planning actions beyond the state, and nationwide.There are planned actions in cities across the US – from Orlando, Florida, Columbus, Ohio, and Phoenix, Arizona, to Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles, California, and New York City – in solidarity with the people of Minnesota.The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents nearly 2 million service and healthcare workers across the US, is leading calls for nationwide participation.
“Martin Luther King wrote to Cesar Chavez during the Great Boycott and said our separate struggles are really one struggle,” David Huerta, president of SEIU-United Service Workers West (USWW) and SEIU California, said on Sunday on Politics Nation with the Rev Al Sharpton on MS Now.“Right now, more than any time ever, we see our civil rights, workers’ rights, and immigrants’ rights [...] in alignment with one another.
”.He added: “When we look at Minneapolis – the violence, the cruelty that’s being brought by this federal government against working people – it is now more than ever that we have to stand together, regardless of our differences.”Jim Badger-Aguilar, a public employee at the Massachusetts Commission for the blind, and SEIU Local 509 member, is due to take part in a blackout event in Boston on Friday.“The behavior of ICE has gone well beyond, I think, what even some of the worst expectations many of us had of what would happen with this ramped-up racist, anti immigrant policies of the Trump administration,” he said.“I’ve been blind since birth, and I work for a blindness agency in Massachusetts.
I’m a public sector worker,” added Badger-Aguilar,“The billions and billions of dollars that are going to ICE are at the cost of public services and of services for people with disabilities, people who are homeless, people who are poor, other working people, and the people who work alongside us, who serve some of the most vulnerable communities – in Massachusetts, and around the country,”Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, president of the Minnesota Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, described the ICE operations in Minnesota as a “crisis” for thousands of workers, due to the risks they face of being targeted while trying to go to work to put food on the table for their families,“This is a crisis for all of our workers,” she said,“This is a crisis for our local economy, and we’re doing everything we can with our employers to keep our workplaces safe.
Our communities and our democracy is under attack when you can’t even have the freedom to move to go to work.“We’re just encouraging everybody in Minnesota, and I understand now it’s gotten national and international traction, to stand in solidarity on the 23rd that what is happening here is unconstitutional and is dangerous.”She pushed back against claims from Trump officials that ICE was targeting undocumented immigrants with criminal records.“We are working directly with families who have been picked up, kidnapped, abducted, arrested, whatever you want to call it, who have absolutely every right to be in this country.They have working papers,” added Glaubitz Gabiou.
“We have one union member who was arrested, released, and then rearrested again, even though they had already been cleared that they were legal to be here and legal being in this country, and legal to work.“There is no rhyme or reason besides racial profiling for how people are being picked up in this community.”The executive board of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the state’s federation of more than 1,000 affiliated local unions, voted on 20 January to endorse the day of action.Dozens of labor unions in Minnesota have also endorsed the day of action.Faith leaders said on Tuesday that dozens of places of worship in Minnesota will participate in the day of action.
“I stand before you with so many clergy, not just here, but across this great state, who are calling for ICE to leave,” said JaNaé Bates Imari, a minister and co-executive director of the multi-faith non-profit Isaiah, in a press conference with several congregation leaders across different religions,“On Friday, we are asking every single faith community to open your doors for people to have lament, to have prayer, to take moral and faithful action together, to take time to reflect on what is going on because it is absolutely not normal, and to call on our folks all around us,”Dozens of local small businesses in the Minneapolis area, from bars to restaurants and bakeries, have announced plans to close,A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security said: “This is beyond insane,Why would these labor bosses not want these public safety threats out of their communities?”They also provided 23 uncaptioned photos of “criminals” they accused labor unions of “trying to protect” by staging the blackout.
Under the Trump administration, thousands of people targeted by ICE have no criminal record, and numerous US citizens have also been detained,In 2025, Trump also issued more than 1,500 pardons of individuals convicted of crimes, including US Capitol insurrectionists and wealthy campaign donors,
Stephen Colbert on Trump’s first year back: ‘Today’s maniacal criminality distracts us from yesterday’s maniac crimes’
Late-night hosts acknowledged one full, maniacal year of Donald Trump’s second term as president of the United States.Tuesday 20 January, marked one full year of Trump’s second presidency, and “during that time, he has monopolized our attention every second of every minute of every hour of every day,” said Stephen Colbert on The Late Show. “Which is sad. Because today we’re not focusing on the real meaning of January 20: it’s Penguin Awareness Day.”On a more serious note, “a lot has happened in a short time”, the host noted
‘We played to 8,000 Mexicans who knew every word’: how the Whitest Boy Alive conquered the world
He lit up Europe with bands ranging from Peachfuzz to Kings of Convenience. But it was the Whitest Boy Alive that sent Erlend Øye stratospheric. As they return, the soft-singing, country-hopping sensation looks backIf you were to imagine the recent evolution of music in Europe as a series of scenes from a Where’s Wally?-style puzzle book, one bespectacled, lanky figure would pop up on almost every page. There he is in mid-90s London, handing out flyers for his first band Peachfuzz. Here he is in NME at the dawn of the new millennium, fronting folk duo Kings of Convenience and spearheading the new acoustic movement
Sally Tallant appointed as new director of London’s Hayward Gallery
Sally Tallant, the former boss of the Liverpool Biennial, has been announced as the new director of the Hayward Gallery and visual arts at London’s Southbank Centre.Tallant, who is currently in charge of the Queens Museum in New York, will return to the UK to take over from Ralph Rugoff, who will step down after two decades in charge of the institution, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.The Leeds-born Tallant has been in the US since 2019 after an eight-year stint in charge of the Liverpool Biennial and more than a decade working at the Serpentine Gallery, where she was head of programmes until 2011.She said she was delighted to be returning to London and excited to build on the “outstanding legacy” of Rugoff, who also took charge of the Venice Biennale in 2019. She said she was looking forward to “shaping the next chapter of this vital cultural destination and civic institution”
Seth Meyers on Trump: ‘It shouldn’t be this hard to make sense of what the president says and does’
With most late-night hosts on holiday, Seth Meyers mocked Donald Trump’s secondhand Nobel peace prize and his incoherent logic for taking over Greenland.Seth Meyers returned to the Late Night desk on Monday evening – Martin Luther King Jr Day in the US, for which other late-night shows remained on break – with a quick rundown of yet another weekend of unfathomably stupid updates from the White House.In the past few days, Trump “threatened to invade Greenland, which is a part of Denmark, because he didn’t win the Nobel peace prize, which he thinks is decided by Norway, which it’s not”, Meyers said. “For more on this, it’s time for ‘Seth Rubs His Temples and Tries to Dissociate for 15 Minutes.’“The news has once again gotten dumber and more exhausting,” he continued
Mama Does Derby review – Virginia Gay’s Town Hall takeover is ambitious, entertaining and irresistibly warm
Sydney’s Town Hall has transformed into a tennis court and a beach for recent iterations of the Sydney festival; this year, it’s a roller derby rink, with a moving set and music stage, and a live band belting covers.Inside the ornate Victorian interior of Centennial Hall, an oval flat track has been installed; on either side are stadium-style seating banks. This is the set for Mama Does Derby, the new family dramedy from Adelaide’s Windmill Production Company, premiering in Sydney ahead of Adelaide festival.There’s something thrilling about seeing art in unusual spaces, and about seeing familiar places rendered strange and wonderful through art. This has become the bread and butter for city festivals over the past decade, offering the thrill of the catch-it-while-you-can live communal experience as a counterpoint to our increasingly isolated lives
The Guide #226: SPOILER ALERT! It’s never been easier to avoid having your favourite show ruined
Don’t be alarmed by the image above. I can assure you that this newsletter features no spoilers for the current season of The Traitors. We won’t be discussing the shocking departure of REDACTED, or the nefarious actions of EXPUNGED, or the fact that CENSORED is the wife/half-brother/hairdresser of NAME REMOVED. Relax, you are in a hermetically sealed Traitors safe space here.Indeed, what has gradually dawned on me while watching this latest series is how relatively straightforward avoiding spoilers has been
‘Manosphere’ influencers pushing testosterone tests are convincing healthy young men there is something wrong with them, study finds
John Knight obituary
Assisted dying bill backers say it is ‘near impossible’ it will pass House of Lords
Residents in legal fight to halt demolition of Clockwork Orange estate
How screen time affects toddlers: ‘We’re losing a big part of being human’
Four in five blind people struggle with gap at UK train stations, survey finds